Dynamic geofencing hysteresis

ABSTRACT

A vehicle geofence system may include a vehicle location detection device configured to provide vehicle location data for a vehicle, a memory configured to maintain geofence data, and a processor programmed to receive the vehicle location data, compare a vehicle location as indicated by the vehicle location data to the geofence data, in response to determining that the vehicle has crossed a geofence, present an inquiry, to a user, requesting feedback as to the accuracy of the geofence crossing, receive user feedback to the inquiry, and provide the user feedback to a server external of the vehicle.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for dynamic geofencinghysteresis.

BACKGROUND

Vehicle systems often use vehicle location data and geofence data toissue alerts, notify third parties of a vehicle's arrival, etc. Suchgeofences, which create virtual boundaries for a specific geographicarea, may be established by shopping centers, municipalities, as well asthe driver. However, inaccuracies with reported vehicle locations maycreate false alerts or information, leading to redundant or inaccuratereporting of the vehicle location.

SUMMARY

A vehicle geofence system may include a vehicle location detectiondevice configured to provide vehicle location data for a vehicle, amemory configured to maintain geofence data, and a processor programmedto receive the vehicle location data, compare a vehicle location asindicated by the vehicle location data to the geofence data, in responseto determining that the vehicle has crossed a geofence, present aninquiry, to a user, requesting feedback as to the accuracy of thegeofence crossing, receive user feedback to the inquiry, and provide theuser feedback to a server external of the vehicle.

A method for a vehicle geofence system may include receiving vehiclelocation data for a vehicle, comparing a vehicle location as indicatedby the vehicle location data to geofence data stored in a memory,presenting, in response to determining that the vehicle has crossed ageofence, an inquiry, to a user, requesting feedback as to the accuracyof the geofence crossing, receiving user feedback to the inquiry, andproviding the user feedback to a server external of the vehicle.

A vehicle geofence system may include a vehicle location detectiondevice configured to provide vehicle location data for a vehicle, amemory configured to maintain geofence data, a vehicle displayconfigured to present information and receive user feedback, and aprocessor programmed to: in response to determining that the vehicle hascrossed a geofence based on the location data, instruct the display topresent an inquiry regarding the accuracy of the geofence crossing,receive, at the display, the user feedback to the inquiry, and providethe user feedback to a server external of the vehicle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments of the present disclosure are pointed out withparticularity in the appended claims. However, other features of thevarious embodiments will become more apparent and will be bestunderstood by referring to the following detailed description inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example diagram including a vehicle configured toaccess telematics servers and a mobile device;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example map image of a geofence with vehiclelocations within and outside of the geofence;

FIG. 3A illustrates an example diagram of a vehicle location determinedto be outside of a geofence;

FIG. 3B illustrates an example diagram of a vehicle location determinedto be at least partially within a geofence based on the vehiclehysteresis;

FIG. 3C illustrates an example diagram of a vehicle location determinedto be at least potentially within a geofence based on the vehiclehysteresis;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example schematic of a parking lot that usesgeofences to determine parking locations;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example process for the geofencing system;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example user interface for the geofence system;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example user interface display providing ageofence alert.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosedherein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodimentsare merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in variousand alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale; somefeatures may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particularcomponents. Therefore, specific structural and functional detailsdisclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as arepresentative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variouslyemploy the present invention.

Disclosed herein is a vehicle geofence system configured to presentalerts to users and third parties when a vehicle enters and exits ageofence. Vehicle systems often use vehicle location data and geofencedata to issue alerts, notify third parties of a vehicle's arrival.However, vehicle location inaccuracies may lead to redundant orerroneous notifications. Global positioning system (GPS) inaccuracy canbe measured by the vehicle's global system for mobile communications(GSM) chipset, and then reported as a value known as 3D estimationerror. The 3D estimation error may be maintained by the vehicle, as wellas an external server. When determining whether to alert the driver tothe crossing of a geofence, the vehicle may perform exit-onlyhysteresis, where the vehicle is considered to enter the geofence (e.g.,a parking spot) ignoring the estimation error, but using the estimationerror before indicating the vehicle has exited the geofence.Additionally, the driver or third party may be informed of low accuracysituations. The driver may be prompted with an inquiry to providefeedback in real-time via a user interface to indicate whether a vehiclecalculated fence crossing entry/exit events, after applying hysteresis,was valid. This may aid in allowing the server to aggregate data acrosssubscribing vehicles to increase the accuracy of geofences and alerts.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example diagram of a system 100 configured toprovide telematics services to a vehicle 102. The vehicle 102 mayinclude various types of passenger vehicle, such as crossover utilityvehicle (CUV), sport utility vehicle (SUV), truck, recreational vehicle(RV), boat, plane or other mobile machine for transporting people orgoods. Telematics services may include, as some non-limitingpossibilities, navigation, turn-by-turn directions, vehicle healthreports, local business search, accident reporting, and hands-freecalling. In an example, the system 100 may include the SYNC systemmanufactured by The Ford Motor Company of Dearborn, Mich. It should benoted that the illustrated system 100 is merely an example, and more,fewer, and/or differently located elements may be used.

The infotainment system 104 may include one or more processors 106configured to perform instructions, commands and other routines insupport of the processes described herein. For instance, theinfotainment system 104 may be configured to execute instructions ofvehicle applications 110 to provide features such as navigation,accident reporting, satellite radio decoding, and hands-free calling.Such instructions and other data may be maintained in a non-volatilemanner using a variety of types of computer-readable storage medium 112.The computer-readable storage medium 112 (also referred to as aprocessor-readable medium 112, memory 112, or storage) includes anynon-transitory medium (e.g., a tangible medium) that participates inproviding instructions or other data that may be read by the processor106 of the infotainment system 104. Computer-executable instructions maybe compiled or interpreted from computer programs created using avariety of programming languages and/or technologies, including, withoutlimitation, and either alone or in combination, Java, C, C++, C#,Objective C, Fortran, Pascal, Java Script, Python, Perl, andPL/structured query language (SQL).

The infotainment system 104 may be provided with various featuresallowing the vehicle occupants to interface with the infotainment system104. For example, the infotainment system 104 may include an audio input114 configured to receive spoken commands from vehicle occupants througha connected microphone 116, and auxiliary audio input 118 configured toreceive audio signals from connected devices. The auxiliary audio input118 may be a physical connection, such as an electrical wire or a fiberoptic cable, or a wireless input, such as a BLUETOOTH audio connection.In some examples, the audio input 114 may be configured to provide audioprocessing capabilities, such as pre-amplification of low-level signals,and conversion of analog inputs into digital data for processing by theprocessor 106.

The infotainment system 104 may also provide one or more audio outputs120 to an input of an audio module 122 having audio playbackfunctionality. In other examples, the infotainment system 104 mayprovide the audio output to an occupant through use of one or morededicated speakers (not illustrated). The audio module 122 may includean input selector 124 configured to provide audio content from aselected audio source 126 to an audio amplifier 128 for playback throughvehicle speakers 130 or headphones (not illustrated). The audio sources126 may include, as some examples, decoded amplitude modulated (AM) orfrequency modulated (FM) radio signals, and audio signals from compactdisc (CD) or digital versatile disk (DVD) audio playback. The audiosources 126 may also include audio received from the infotainment system104, such as audio content generated by the infotainment system 104,audio content decoded from flash memory drives connected to a universalserial bus (USB) subsystem 132 of the infotainment system 104, and audiocontent passed through the infotainment system 104 from the auxiliaryaudio input 118.

The infotainment system 104 may utilize a voice interface 134 to providea hands-free interface to the infotainment system 104. The voiceinterface 134 may support speech recognition from audio received via themicrophone 116 according to grammar associated with available commands,and voice prompt generation for output via the audio module 122. Thevoice interface 134 may utilize probabilistic voice recognitiontechniques using the grammar in comparison to the input speech. In manycases, the voice interface 134 may include a standard user profiletuning for use by the voice recognition functions to allow the voicerecognition to be tuned to provide good results on average, resulting inpositive experiences for the maximum number of initial users. In somecases, the system may be configured to temporarily mute or otherwiseoverride the audio source specified by the input selector 124 when anaudio prompt is ready for presentation by the infotainment system 104and another audio source 126 is selected for playback.

The infotainment system 104 may also receive input from human-machineinterface (HMI) controls 136 configured to provide for occupantinteraction with the vehicle 102. For instance, the infotainment system104 may interface with one or more buttons or other HMI controlsconfigured to invoke functions on the infotainment system 104 (e.g.,steering wheel audio buttons, a push-to-talk button, instrument panelcontrols, etc.). The infotainment system 104 may also drive or otherwisecommunicate with one or more displays 138 configured to provide visualoutput to vehicle occupants by way of a video controller 140. In somecases, the display 138 may be a touch screen further configured toreceive user touch input via the video controller 140, while in othercases the display 138 may be a view screen without touch inputcapabilities.

The infotainment system 104 may be further configured to communicatewith other components of the vehicle 102 via one or more in-vehiclenetworks 142. The in-vehicle networks 142 may include one or more of avehicle controller area network (CAN), an Ethernet network, and a mediaoriented system transfer (MOST), as some examples. The in-vehiclenetworks 142 may allow the infotainment system 104 to communicate withother vehicle 102 systems, such as a vehicle modem 144 (which may not bepresent in some configurations), a GPS module 146 and a GSM module 145configured to provide current vehicle 102 location and headinginformation, and various vehicle electronic control units (ECUs) 148configured to corporate with the infotainment system 104. As somenon-limiting possibilities, the vehicle ECUs 148 may include apowertrain control module configured to provide control of engineoperating components (e.g., idle control components, fuel deliverycomponents, emissions control components, etc.) and monitoring of engineoperating components (e.g., status of engine diagnostic codes); a bodycontrol module configured to manage various power control functions suchas exterior lighting, interior lighting, keyless entry, remote start,and point of access status verification (e.g., closure status of thehood, doors and/or trunk of the vehicle 102); a radio transceiver moduleconfigured to communicate with key fobs or other local vehicle 102devices; and a climate control management module configured to providecontrol and monitoring of heating and cooling system components (e.g.,compressor clutch and blower fan control, temperature sensorinformation, etc.).

As shown, the audio module 122 and the HMI controls 136 may communicatewith the infotainment system 104 over a first in-vehicle network 142-A,and the vehicle modem 144, GPS module 146, and vehicle ECUs 148 maycommunicate with the infotainment system 104 over a second in-vehiclenetwork 142-B. In other examples, the infotainment system 104 may beconnected to more or fewer in-vehicle networks 142. Additionally oralternately, one or more HMI controls 136 or other components may beconnected to the infotainment system 104 via different in-vehiclenetworks 142 than shown, or directly without connection to an in-vehiclenetwork 142.

The infotainment system 104 may also be configured to communicate withmobile devices 152 of the vehicle occupants. The mobile devices 152 maybe any of various types of portable computing device, such as cellularphones, tablet computers, smart watches, laptop computers, portablemusic players, or other devices capable of communication with theinfotainment system 104. In many examples, the infotainment system 104may include a wireless transceiver 150 (e.g., a BLUETOOTH module, aZIGBEE transceiver, a Wi-Fi transceiver, an IrDA transceiver, a radiofrequency identification (RFID) transceiver, etc.) configured tocommunicate with a compatible wireless transceiver 154 of the mobiledevice 152. Additionally or alternately, the infotainment system 104 maycommunicate with the mobile device 152 over a wired connection, such asvia a USB connection between the mobile device 152 and the USB subsystem132. In some examples the mobile device 152 may be battery powered,while in other cases the mobile device 152 may receive at least aportion of its power from the vehicle 102 via the wired connection.

The communications network 156 may provide communications services, suchas packet-switched network services (e.g., Internet access, VoIPcommunication services), to devices connected to the communicationsnetwork 156. An example of a communications network 156 may include acellular telephone network. Mobile devices 152 may provide networkconnectivity to the communications network 156 via a device modem 158 ofthe mobile device 152. To facilitate the communications over thecommunications network 156, mobile devices 152 may be associated withunique device identifiers (e.g., mobile device numbers (MDNs), Internetprotocol (IP) addresses, etc.) to identify the communications of themobile devices 152 over the communications network 156. In some cases,occupants of the vehicle 102 or devices having permission to connect tothe infotainment system 104 may be identified by the infotainment system104 according to paired device data 160 maintained in the storage medium112. The paired device data 160 may indicate, for example, the uniquedevice identifiers of mobile devices 152 previously paired with theinfotainment system 104 of the vehicle 102, secret information sharedbetween the paired device and the infotainment system 104 such as linkkeys, and/or personal identification numbers (PINs), and most recentlyused or device priority information, such that the infotainment system104 may automatically reconnect to the mobile devices 152 matching datain the paired device data 160 without user intervention.

When a mobile device 152 that supports network connectivity is connectedto the infotainment system 104, the mobile device 152 may allow theinfotainment system 104 to use the network connectivity of the devicemodem 158 to communicate over the communications network 156 with theremote telematics server 162 or other remote computing device. In oneexample, the infotainment system 104 may utilize a data-over-voice planor data plan of the mobile device 152 to communicate information betweenthe infotainment system 104 and the communications network 156.Additionally or alternately, the infotainment system 104 may utilize thevehicle modem 144 to communicate information between the infotainmentsystem 104 and the communications network 156, without use of thecommunications facilities of the mobile device 152.

Similar to the infotainment system 104, the mobile device 152 mayinclude one or more processors 164 configured to execute instructions ofmobile applications loaded to a memory 166 of the mobile device 152 fromstorage medium 112 of the mobile device 152. In some examples, themobile applications may be configured to communicate with theinfotainment system 104 via the wireless transceiver 154 and with theremote telematics server 162 or other network services via the devicemodem 158. The infotainment system 104 may also include a device linkinterface 172 to facilitate the integration of functionality of themobile applications into the grammar of commands available via the voiceinterface 134. The device link interface 172 may also provide the mobileapplications with access to vehicle functions and information availableto the infotainment system 104 via the in-vehicle networks 142. Anexample of a device link interface 172 may be the SYNC APPLINK componentof the SYNC system provided by The Ford Motor Company of Dearborn, Mich.

The vehicle applications 110 may include a geofence system configured todetermine a vehicle location from at least one of the GSM module 145 orGPS module 146. The GPS module 146 may indicate a vehicle location andthe GSM module 145 may generate a 3D estimation error for the GPSlocation. This vehicle location data may be used by the processor 106 todetermine if and when a vehicle 102 has crossed a geofence.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example map image of a geofence 200. A geofencemay be a virtual perimeter defining a geographic area. In the example inFIG. 2, the geofence may be circular in shape and form a radius around acertain geographic location. In other examples, the geofence 200 may beany shape, including oblong, quadrilateral, etc. Geofences may beestablished by a client such as a retail establishment, restaurant,etc., via a mobile app, web portal, etc. The geofence 200 may beestablished for any number of reasons such as detecting when a vehicleenters or leaves a specific geographic area. This may for purposes ofdetecting when a vehicle arrives at a certain location, for example, forcurb-side pickup or parking spot entry. Geofencing may also be used fortheft detection when a vehicle is detected leaving a geofence, amongother uses.

The geofence 200 may be defined through an address search, point ofinterest (POI), pin drop on a map, natural boundary, defined parkingspot, etc. In many cases, geofences are stored onboard via the vehicletelematics, in a memory such as memory 112, illustrated in FIG. 1. Thisallows the vehicle 102 to more efficiently process location data withoutlatency delays often created by communicating with the communicationsnetwork 156.

A vehicle location, as explained above, may be determined based onvehicle location data provided by the GPS module 146 and GSM module 145of the vehicle 102. The geofence application within the vehicle 102 mayprocess the vehicle location against the geofences. In the event ageofence boundary is crossed, data may be transmitted regarding thecrossing, either upon entering or leaving the geofence 200. The vehicle102 may transmit the data to the communications network 156. The datamay indicate an entry or exit of the specific vehicle. In this example,the cloud may manage geofence management services.

Additionally, and as explained above, the GSM module 145 may be used todetermine a 3D estimation error of the GPS signal. The 3D estimationerror may be used to generate a radius about the vehicle to determinepossible vehicle locations with an included error.

Oftentimes when vehicles are traveling along a route, the vehicle mayborder a geofence. The geofence system within the vehicle 102 mayprovide an alert to the driver that the drive has entered the geofence200. Similarly, the vehicle 102 may provide an alert to the driver whenthe vehicle 102 exits the geofence. The alerts may be visual, throughthe vehicle display 138 or mobile device displays, audible through thevehicle or mobile device audio module 122, or haptic alerts. The alertsmay be a combination of alerts.

The location of the vehicle 102 may be determined by the GPS module 146.However, the GPS module 146 may be inaccurate to a certain degree. Forexample, the GPS module 146 may be inaccurate by up to 20 meters. Whilesuch inaccuracies may not affect traditional navigation and routingsystems on the vehicle, the inaccuracies may affect geofencingcomparisons. In the example shown in FIG. 2, a vehicle may be travelingalong a route 205. A series of GPS locations 202 may be received alongthat route 205 indicating the location of the vehicle. However, incertain areas, times of the day, etc., such GPS locations may not beentirely accurate. In one example, the GPS location may include a firstGPS location 210 that differs from the actual vehicle GPS location 202.The GPS location may include a second GPS location 215 that differs fromthe actual vehicle GPS location 202 as well. In this, the first andsecond GPS locations 210, 215 may represent the margin of error on theGPS module reading. That is, if the vehicle 102 is traveling along theroute 205, GPS locations at +/−20 m may be received.

As the vehicle 102 approaches the outer perimeter of the geofence 200,the inaccuracies of the GPS locations (e.g., the illustrated first andsecond GPS locations 210, 215) may cause the vehicle 102 to move in andout of the geofence 200. With each crossing of the geofence 200, thevehicle 102 may issue alerts, indicating that the vehicle has enteredand/or left the geofence 200. These alerts may be distracting andcumbersome to the driver of the vehicle 102.

Additionally, third parties may be confused by the vehicle's locationwith respect to the geofence 200. In the example of a third party beinga retail establishment, the retail establishment may rely onnotifications of the vehicle 102 entering or leaving the geofence 200for purposes of curb-side delivery of items, drop offs, etc.

In order to decrease the number of false alerts due to GPS inaccuracies,the geofrence system may use various hysteresis approaches to preventfalse alerts. In one example, GPS inaccuracies may be measured by thevehicle's GSM module 145, and then reported as a value known as 3Destimation error. This value may be continuously updated in real-time ornear real-time to provide for dynamic geofence boundaries to furtherreduce false boundary crossing events. In the examples described herein,a map of 3D estimation error may be maintained by the server 162 insteadof being solely stored on the vehicle 102 itself. This may allow thesystem to have all participating vehicles provide their respective 3Destimation error values to the server 162 periodically. This allows formore data aggregation service to build a database of possible hot spotswhere 3D estimation error is large enough to be prohibited for smallergeofences. This may typically occur in more densely populated areas.

This information may also be provided to a front-end client duringgeofence creation. For example, the client may be privy to the fact thatthe 3D estimation error in an area is large. The client may, forexample, receive an alert such as “Warning: other users have reportedvehicle less-than ideal location accuracy in this area, you may want toincrease the size of the geofence to reduce errors.” Thus, clients mayreceive guidance for creating appropriate fence sizes based on thevehicle's localization capabilities for a variety of environments whereenough reported data is available.

The vehicle 102 may perform specific hysteresis for determining whetherthe vehicle 102 has crossed a geofence. In one example, the vehicle 102may perform exit-only hysteresis, where the vehicle is considered toenter the geofence (e.g., a parking spot) ignoring the estimation errorbut uses the estimation error before indicating the vehicle has exitedthe geofence. Similar to clients being informed for the creation ofgeofences, drivers may also be informed of low accuracy errors.

Additionally, a user may provide feedback as to low vehicle locationaccuracy. In some examples, the vehicle 102 may issue an alert andsubsequently ask the user whether the alert is accurate. For example,the display 138 may display text such as “Vehicle detected to be withina geofence, specifically at Target(R), parking bay 6—Is this accurate?”.The display 138 may present selection options such as “yes” or “no”, forthe user to select. The inquiry may also be presented audibly via thevehicle speakers 130, or through the mobile device 152. Responses to theinquiry may sent to the server 162 to generate the database of potentialhot spots and inaccuracies for the server 162 to use. The vehicle 102may also update its hysteresis based on the user feedback as well. Thus,the user feedback assists in improving and tuning the hysteresisalgorithm and allow for further adaptive learning over time as the userconfirms valid events and dismisses invalid events.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example diagram of the vehicle 102 being outsideof a geofence 300. In this example, the vehicle 102 may be approachingthe polygonal geofence 300. The server 162 may determine a 3D estimationerror for the vehicle 102 and determine a potential vehicle location orradius based on the estimation error. In one example, the vehiclelocation inaccuracy may be +/−3 ft, forming a 3 ft radius 305 around thevehicle location. This may be determined by the location data includingthe GPS and GSM data. In this example, the server 162 may compare thegeofence 300 with the reported location +/−3 ft.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example diagram of the vehicle 102 beingdetermined to be at least potentially within the geofence 300 based onthe vehicle hysteresis. The vehicle hysteresis may adjust at both entryand exit of the vehicle 102 from the geofence 300. In some examples thehysteresis includes various adjustments to the reported vehicle locationwhen estimating whether the vehicle is within a geofence or not. Thehysteresis may include exit-only hysteresis. In this example, by usinghysteresis to estimate the actual vehicle location, false or redundantalerts may be avoided.

FIG. 3C illustrates an example diagram of the vehicle 102 beingdetermined to be within the geofence 300 based on the vehiclehysteresis.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example schematic of an example building 402 andan associated parking lot 404. The building 402 may be a store thatparticipates in curb-side pick-up. The parking lot 404 may includeparking spots 406 that are assigned a number. Each parking spot mayoutline a geofence in order to detect when a vehicle enters or leavesthe parking spot 406. The building 402 may receive a notification oralert as to the entry of a vehicle 102 to a certain parking spot 406 sothat goods may be delivered to the vehicle 102 upon the vehicle arrivingat the store. However, often times the vehicle hysteresis may have anentry hysteresis geofence that is larger than the parking spot 406 inorder to limit notifications of entry into the spot. To obviate this,exist hysteresis' can be used to block entry-exit-noise on these commondriving conditions and support entry into a tight parking spot. Notably,exit hysteresis' may serve as a reasonable compromise between accuracyand small geofence sizes. In the example of FIG. 4, the aggregatedestimated error may indicate that the fence size is small and may beprohibitive, but exit-only hysteresis may still allow for the functionsto be executed.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example process 500 for the geofencing system toreceive user feedback about certain geofences to increase hysteresisaccuracy. The process 500 may begin at block 502 where the vehicle 102,specifically the processor 106, generates a 3D estimation error based onthe GSM and GPS data of the vehicle. The vehicle 102 may transmit the 3Destimation error to the server 162. This may be done via communicationsnetwork 156. The server 162, as explained above, may use this data todetermine areas with higher error rates, and aggregate data from thesubscribing vehicles.

At block 506, the vehicle 102 may determine whether a geofence boundaryhas been crossed. This may be accomplished by comparing geofence datawith the 3D estimation error. If a geofence has been crossed, theprocess 500 proceeds to block 508. If not, the process 500 continues towait for the reported vehicle location to enter or leave a geofence. Thevehicle 102 may use various hysteresis to determine whether the geofencehas been crossed, including exit-only hysteresis.

At block 508, in response to the vehicle 102 detecting and crossing ageofence, the vehicle 102 may provide an inquiry to the user regardingthe accuracy of any geofence alerts. As explained above, the vehicle 102may present the user with a questionnaire as to whether the geofence isaccurate. The inquiry may include a question such as “Are you currentlyparked at parking spot #6.” The inquiry may be audible or visual, andmay be provided through vehicle 102 systems such as the display 138 orvehicle speakers 130. Additionally or alternatively, the inquiry may bepresented via the mobile device 152.

At block 510, the vehicle may receive the user response to the inquiryand transmit the response to the server 162. The server 162 may use thisresponse to aggregate data and provide updated hysteresis to the vehicle102 for better refining of geofences, 3D estimation error, etc. Theprocess 500 may then end.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example user interface 600 presented an inquiry tothe user. The inquiry may include a question or message 602 andselectable response options 604. The user may select one of the options604 to indicate whether the geofence has been crossed. The options mayinclude one option indicating that the geofence was crossed and thus thevehicle location is accurate, and another option indicating that thegeofence was not crossed and thus the vehicle location is inaccurate. Insome instances, the vehicle 102 may present an alert that the geofencehas been crossed in addition to the inquiry.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example user interface screen 700 providing angeofence alert for when a user or customer may be generating a geofencein an area which has reportedly had certain levels of inaccuracies indetecting vehicle location. The alert may indicate that a largergeofence area may decrease errors or false alerts. The screen 700 mayfurther provide for an indication of a suggested geofence size comparedto the originally set geofence size 706. Thus, the user may achieve moredesired results and more efficient geofences.

Accordingly, user feedback may be provided to the server 162 tofacilitate aggregating of user data by the server 162 to provide forupdated geofence data, estimation, and accuracy.

While exemplary embodiments are described above, it is not intended thatthese embodiments describe all possible forms of the invention. Rather,the words used in the specification are words of description rather thanlimitation, and it is understood that various changes may be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.Additionally, the features of various implementing embodiments may becombined to form further embodiments of the invention.

1. A vehicle geofence system, comprising: a vehicle location detectiondevice configured to provide vehicle location data for a vehicle; amemory configured to maintain geofence data; and a processor programmedto: receive the vehicle location data, compare a vehicle location asindicated by the vehicle location data to the geofence data, in responseto determining that the vehicle has crossed a geofence, present aninquiry, to a user, requesting feedback as to the accuracy of thegeofence crossing, receive user feedback to the inquiry, and provide theuser feedback to a server external of the vehicle, and in response tothe user feedback indicating an inaccuracy of the geofence crossing,present an alert to the user indicating that a larger geofence area maydecrease the inaccuracy.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the userfeedback is received at a vehicle display.
 3. The system of claim 1,where the inquiry is displayed on a vehicle display and includes atleast two response options, one option indicating an accurate geofencecrossing and the another option indicating an inaccurate geofencecrossing.
 4. The system of claim 1, where the inquiry is displayed on amobile device associated with the user and includes at least tworesponse options.
 5. The system of claim 1, where the inquiry is anaudible inquiry emitted from at least one vehicle speaker.
 6. The systemof claim 1, wherein the user feedback is received at a vehiclemicrophone.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle locationdetection device is at least one of a global positioning system (GPS)device and a global system for mobile communications (GSM) device. 8.The system of claim 1, wherein the vehicle location data includes a 3Destimation error to determine the vehicle location.
 9. A method for avehicle geofence system, comprising: receiving vehicle location data fora vehicle; comparing a vehicle location as indicated by the vehiclelocation data to geofence data stored in a memory; generating, inresponse to determining that the vehicle has crossed a geofence, anaudible inquiry via a vehicle speaker, to a user, requesting feedback asto the accuracy of the geofence crossing; receiving user feedback to theinquiry via a vehicle microphone; and providing the user feedback to aserver external of the vehicle.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein theuser feedback is received at a vehicle display.
 11. (canceled)
 12. Themethod of claim 9, where the inquiry is further presented by beingdisplayed on a mobile device associated with the user and includes atleast two response options.
 13. (canceled)
 14. (canceled)
 15. The methodof claim 9, wherein the vehicle location data is acquired from at leastone of a global positioning system (GPS) device and a global system formobile communications (GSM) device.
 16. The method of claim 9, whereinthe vehicle location data includes a 3D estimation error to determinethe vehicle location.
 17. A vehicle geofence system, comprising: avehicle location detection device configured to provide vehicle locationdata for a vehicle, wherein the vehicle location data includes a 3Destimation error to determine a vehicle location; a memory configured tomaintain geofence data, a vehicle display configured to presentinformation and receive user feedback; and a processor programmed to: inresponse to determining that the vehicle has crossed a geofence based onthe location data, instruct the display to present an inquiry regardingthe accuracy of the geofence crossing, receive, at the display, the userfeedback to the inquiry, and provide the user feedback to a serverexternal of the vehicle.
 18. The system of claim 17, where the inquiryincludes at least on question and at least two response options.
 19. Thesystem of claim 17, wherein the vehicle location detection device is atleast one of a global positioning system (GPS) device and a globalsystem for mobile communications (GSM) device.
 20. (canceled)